In Parliament, Field was made a
member of the Opposition frontbench by the then Labour leader Michael Foot as a
spokesman on education in 1980, but was dropped a year later.
Following the appointment of Neil Kinnock as the Labour leader in 1983,
Field was appointed as a spokesman on health and social security
for a year. He was appointed the chairman of the social services select committee in 1987, becoming the
chairman of the new social security select committee in 1990, a
position he held until the 1997
election.

Two nights before the Conservative
Party leadership election in November1990, he visited then Prime MinisterMargaret
Thatcher at 10 Downing Street. He advised her
that her time as Prime Minister was drawing to a close and that she
should back John Major
to take over the role. His reason for doing so was that he felt
that her Conservative colleagues would not tell her straight that
she could not win a leadership contest. Following this meeting, he
was smuggled out of Downing Street's back door. Two days later
Margaret Thatcher supported John Major for the post, and he would
go on to be Prime Minister.[2]

Following the 1997 election, with Labour in power, Field joined
the government of Tony Blair as the Minister of Welfare Reform at
the Department of Social
Security with the rank of Minister of State. He was also made a
member of the Privy Council. Field viewed his task as
"thinking the unthinkable" in terms of social security reform,
however others report that the Prime Minister Blair wanted some
simpler vote-winning policy ideas.[1]
There were clashes with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Gordon
Brown, and the Secretary of State for Social Security, Harriet Harman.
Field resigned his ministerial position in 1998 rather than accept
a move away from the Department of Social Security offered by Blair
in a reshuffle. It was reported that Field had argued for Blair to
promote him to Secretary of State for Social Security.

After holding office, he was a member of the ecclesiastical and
public accounts committees. Since the 2005 General
Election, he has remained on the backbenches. He is now a vocal
critic of the government from the backbenches, notably voting
against Foundation
Hospitals in November 2003. He was a significant critic of the
abolition of the 10p tax rate.[3]
In June 2008, Field joined calls for the establishment of a devolved
parliament for England.[4]

On 8 June 2009, Field wrote on his internet blog that he
believed that the Labour Party would not win the next election with
Gordon Brown as
leader. On 6 January 2010, Field was one of the few Labour leaders
to back Geoff Hoon and
Patricia
Hewitt's calls for a secret ballot of the Parliamentary Labour Party
in regards to the leadership of Gordon Brown. The ballot could have
led to a leadership contest.[5]

In May 2009 Field announced his candidacy for the Speaker of the
House of Commons but later withdrew his candidacy citing lack of
support from within his own party.[6]John Bercow was
eventually elected as the new speaker. In December 2009, a group of
senior Conservative backbenchers would try and oust Bercow after
the 2010 general
election and vote to replace him with Field due to him being
"unpopular with Labour MPs for criticising the Government."[7]

Personal
beliefs

Field's political stance has been somewhat at odds with the rest
of the Parliamentary Labour Party in recent years. He is a member
of the advisory board of the free-market think tankReform, and of the new conservative
magazine Standpoint. In May 2008, he
said that Margaret Thatcher "is certainly a
hero" and that "I still see Mrs T from time to time ‚Äď I always call
her 'Mrs T', when I talk to her."[3]
Although there have been attempts to get him to defect to the Conservatives, they have been
without success.[8]
In 2008, Frank Field was named as the 100th most-influential
right-winger in the United Kingdom by the Telegraph.[8]
Field supports the return of National service to tackle growing
unemployment and instil ‚Äúa sense of order and patriotism‚ÄĚ in
Britain‚Äôs young men and women. [9]

Field believes strongly in fighting climate change.[10] He
co-founded the charity Cool Earth with Johan Eliasch. Cool Earth protects
endangered rainforest and works with the local communities to
combat climate change.[11]